Axed cartoon was good role model for girls

My name is McKenna Lewis and I am 10 (almost 11). I love to read your comics. But why did you replace "Preteena" with those other dumb comics? I live in Hanapepe, Kauai, and my Papa, who lives in Oahu, collects the funnies for me. I was very, very disappointed when I heard "Preteena" was cancelled. What happened? They left off when Teena and Stick were in a snow storm.

You should put "Preteena" back because she is a role model to girls my age. Just to let you know, adults don't just read comics -- kids do, too. My friends and I fight over the funnies all the time. So please, bring "Preteena" back!

P.S. I bet fewer people will read your newspaper because of this catastrophe!

McKenna Lewis
Age 10
Hanapepe, Kauai

More laws needed to protect people

I have been a Republican for more than 30 years, and I am a supporter of President Bush. However on one issue I do not agree with the president. I support gun control. What happened at Virginia Tech was almost too much to bear. This nation and its leaders need to enact stricter laws to regulate handguns.

A waiting period before anyone can purchase any handgun is needed and a ban on "assault-style" weapons should be enacted again. Gun regulation might have prevented the tragedy at Columbine, and now Virginia Tech. People need to realize violence is worse today. Violence includes child abuse, pornography, violent Internet games, the violence that the media puts on TV, the movies. The sanctity of human life seems to be less and less in people's minds. It seems that some gun control opponents are much more upset with the right to bear arms than the right to life of human beings. I see gun control as a means to support and protect human life. Every time these horrific tragedies happen too many politicians, media people and lobbies talk about the Constitution.

It appears not much is talked about the prevention of gun violence and the value of all human life. I hope one day we can move away from the politics of gun control to how we as a nation can prevent more violence.

Theodore Taba
Honolulu

Disarming all citizens won't stop murderers

When will the anti-gun lobby learn that gun control laws cause massacres like those at Virginia Tech, they don't prevent them? In areas that have nondiscretionary concealed-gun laws, law-abiding citizens can carry guns legitimately and protect themselves. The rate of violent crimes and the deaths from firearms are considerably lower in such areas. Statistics -- see the FBI yearly crime statistics -- prove this; detailed studies of criminals prove this.

The state of Virginia has nondiscretionary concealed-gun laws, but unfortunately these laws do not extend to university campuses.

Criminals -- and that is what the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech massacre was -- are afraid of being shot by their victims. Even killers who plan to kill themselves want to determine when and how they die.

Criminals will always be able to obtain guns. Disarming the law-abiding citizen only sets them up as defenseless targets and victims.

Terry Allard
Ewa Beach

Jaywalking crackdown all about the money

The jaywalking crackdown in the downtown area is not about safety, it's just "follow the money." For every jaywalker the police nab, it means $72 in the government coffers. If those same police just walked a block or two in any direction in the downtown area and cited the huge number of drug dealers and addicts, prostitutes and johns, graffiti artists and petty criminals, not only would they not get any money, their arrests would end up costing the city many dollars in housing, feeding, medical care and trials. Jaywalkers are just free money lying around just waiting to be picked up. Just follow the money.

For the city to use its highly trained and overburdened police force for the menial task of citing jaywalkers is getting ridiculous. The city should hire some unemployed folks, give them a day's training in jaywalker enforcement, give them a nifty shirt (like the bus drivers have) and a nice badge, call them the HJC (Honolulu Jaywalker Corps) and set them loose with a book of tickets. Their only job would be to find and cite jaywalkers. This would free the police force to deal with real crimes that we see every day that are now being ignored.

Ann Ruby
Honolulu

Entertainer's death felt in the heavens

On April 14 the sun stood still in the sky, the sea was quiet and cold, the wind was crying through the valleys and rainbows began their life with tears from our eyes ...

Frazier's absence would help UH sports

Herman Frazier, the University of Hawaii's athletic director should go! He is doing UH sports, coaches, athletes and us a disservice. Granted, Frazier seems like a nice guy and he does mean well but he is a "rogue" AD. We never heard the truth. Was Coach Reilly Wallace pressured by Frazier to resign in order to fill the then-vacant basketball coaching spot with a big-name coach Frazier thought we needed? Despite local fans' desire to see the highly popular Bob Nash be the next coach, the position was vacant so long, ultimately a panel recommended Nash.

Frazier's delay to fill the UH football schedule also has backfired, hurting star quarterback Colt Brennan's ability to show his potential against big-name teams. The delay also has hurt us -- the viewing and paying Hawaii fans.

Yes, it is time to refresh and improve UH sports. Let's start by getting a new AD.

Timothy Fern
Kaneohe

Nash a great pick for Rainbow basketball

Congrats to the University of Hawaii, athletic director Herman Frazier and Rainbow Warriors basketball fans ("UH puts program in Nash's hands," Star-Bulletin, April 14) ... what a wise move. Hiring Bob Nash as head coach is the best decision you've made in Hawaii! I lived and taught school in Hawaii when Coach Nash was a member of the "Fab Five" (something I'll never forget!).

Go, Bobby, go!

Jonathan Farmer
Former Hawaii resident
Portland, Ore.

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